The development of the Portuguese agrarian reform

Abstract

The history of the Portuguese agrarian reform is treated in relation to the theory developed by Hung-chao Tai in his book Land Reform and Politics; a Comparative Analysis (University of California Press, Berkeley 1974). In this theory the content of a land reform is assumed to result from the character of the relationship between the political elite and the landed class. At first the southern central region of Portugal (the Alentejo), where the agrarian reform took place, is described. Attention is paid to agriculture and landownership of the Alentejo, as well as to the structure of the agricultural population and its political orientation, in contrast to the rest of Portugal. Next, a chronological description is given of the developments in the Alentejo: the 1974 revolution, the land seizures, the agrarian reform laws and the forming of collectives in 1975, the new agrarian law of 1977 and the process of land restitution during the years following this new law. These developments are linked to the character of the relationship between the successive political elites and the landed class or the unions of rural workers. In a concluding paragraph the present state and the future of the collectives are discussed.